Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) got an important confidence boost for the World Championships when he won today’s GP d’Isbergues in a bunch sprint. After his team had controlled the race all day, he beat Michal Kolar (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Shane Archbold (Bora-Argon 18) in the final dash to the line and the win was enough to move him into the overall Coupe de France lead.

 

The 2015 season has been extremely unfortunate for Nacer Bouhanni who crashed out of three of his big season goals, the French championships, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. Now his next big objective is the World Championships and today he boosted his confidence significantly.

 

Since abandoning the Vuelta relatively early, Bouhanni has recovered from his injuries and has already done a couple of races at the GP de Fourmies, Tour du Doubs and GP de Wallonie. Until today, a third place in the first race was his best result but today he finally returned to his winning ways in the Coupe de  France race GP d’Isbergues.

 

The mostly flat race had been a windy one with several splits along the way but Cofidis had always been on top of things. However, the fast pace meant that the break was already caught with 41km to go, making for a dangerous final part of the race for the sprint teams.

 

While Jelle Wallays (Topsport), Matteo Pelucchi (IAM), Adrien Petit (Cofidis) and Mentheour (Veranclassic) were all dropped, Sjoerd van Ginneken (Roompot) made an unsuccessful attack. Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne) was the next to try and he was joined by Sander Helven (Topsport) to form a duo that entered the final 30km with a 10-second advantage.

 

Unsurprisingly, Cofidis started to chase and while Andre Looij (Roompot) punctured, they allowed the gap to go out to 20 seconds. They slowly started to reel the two attackers in and this opened the door for Philip Lindau (Joker) to bridge the gap. Meanwhile, Helven dropped back to the peloton and so it was a duo that started the final 10km with a 7-second advantage.

 

Wanty took over the pace-setting in the peloton when the gap had gone out to 12 seconds with 8km to go. However, the two attackers had no chance and it was all back together with 3km to go. That’s when Cofidis again took control and finally they delivered Bouhanni to a comfortable sprint win.

 

With today’s result, Bouhanni takes the lead in the Coupe de France race series while Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix) moves into second, 24 points behind. Previous leader Pierrick Fedrigo is another three points behind in third. Tour de Vendee on October 4 is the final race in the series while the next major race in France is the two-day Tour du Gevaudan next weekend.

 

 

A flat race

The 69th edition of GP d’Isbergues was held on a 204.1km course around the city of Isbergues. First the riders did two laps of a 7.1km circuit before they tackled another 20.5km circuit. The main part of the race was made up of a big 133.9km loop with 8 smaller climbs and then the riders finished the race by doing five laps of the same circuit that they had done twice at the start of the race.

 

A bright sun was shining when the riders gathered for the start. Bruno Pires (Tinkof-Saxo), Bjorn Tore Hoem (Joker) and Robbe Casier (Veranclassic) were all absent.

 

A strong break

Timothy Dupont (Roubaix) suffered a mechanical in the neutral zone but was back in the peloton before the flag was waved. As expected, there were lots of attacks and it was a four-rider group with Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Kevin Reza (FDJ), Axel Domont (Ag2r) and Sander Helven (Topsport) that quickly managed to get a small gap.

 

The group was not given any room to get clear and they had to fight hard just to maintain a very small advantage. That allowed Evaldas Siskevicius (Marseille) and David Menut (Auber 93) to join the move while Bjorn Leukemans (Wanty) had to work his way back to the peloton after suffering a mechanical.

 

A big pursuit

The gap slowly went out to 30 seconds where the Veranclassic team kept it stable for a while. At the 14km mark, they had brought it down to 20 seconds but then they again started to lose ground.

 

Edward Beltran (Tinkoff) became the first rider to abandon at a time when Bretagne had taken over the pace-setting, keeping the gap stable at around 50 seconds. Meanwhile, Alexandre Blain (Marseille) and Dupont both had mechanicals.

 

Stable situation

At the 24km mark, the gap reached one minute for the first time but it again came down when more teams started to contribute to the chase. It got even worse when they took a wrong way in a roundabout before Siskevicius beat Menut and Voeckler in the first intermediate sprint where the gap was 45 seconds.

 

The gap stayed at 40-45 seconds for a long time as they took on the big loop. Here Dupont had his third mechanical.

 

The break is caught

Bretagne was again in charge of the chase and as Wallonie also came to the fore, they had brought the gap down to 20 seconds at the 40km mark. Siskevicius beat Domont and Menut in the second sprint after Reza and Helven had sat up but at the 46km mark, it was all back together.

 

Amund Jansen (Joker) launched the next attack before Yoann Paillot (Marseille) and Taruia Krainer (Europcar) took off in pursuit. The latte was the first to get caught though and later Paillot also had to surrender.

 

A new break is formed

Steven Tronet (Auber) led the chase 10 seconds behind Jansen who won the third sprint ahead of Guillaume Levarlet (Auber) and Francois Bidard (Ag2r). Moments later, he was brought back as fast pace made the peloton split.

 

Ignatas Konovalovas (Marseille), Mickael Delage (FDJ), Antwan Tolhoek (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) managed to get advantage in time for Delage to beat Konovalovas and Quemeneur in the fourth sprint. The peloton finally slowed down and allowed the gap to go out to 45 seconds.

 

IAM and Cofidis take control

They quickly neutralized a counterattack from Romain Pillon (Roubaix) but the took a breather, meaning that the gap had gone out to 2.50 before Cofidis and IAM started to chase at the 73km mark.

 

Konovalovas beat Tolhoek and Delage in the fifth sprint while IAM and Cofidis kept the gap between the 2- and 3-minute marks. Tolhoek led Quemeneur over the top of the first two climbs, with Konovalovas and Delage taking third.

 

The gap comes down

At the 88km mark, Cofidis and IAM had reduced the gap to 1.50 and as they didn’t get more advantage, the break slowed down while discussing whether to wait for the peloton. Riding at 30kph, the peloton slowed down too, with Adrien Petit (Cofidis) riding on the front.

 

The gap was down to 1.20 before the escapees started to ride again. This opened the door for Levarlet to try to bridge across and when he had 15 seconds, Thomas Damuseau (Roubaix) and Romain Combaud (Armee) also took off.

 

A chase group is formed

The three chasers joined forces and were only 45 seconds behind at the 103km mark. However, the peloton was only 10 seconds behind and this allowed Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar) to bridge the gap.

 

The peloton slowed down and so the gaps were 50 seconds and 1.40 with 95km to go where Loic Vliegen (BMC) abandoned. Cofidis were in control with 3 riders while Tolhoek beat Konovalovas and Delage in the third KOM sprint. On the fourth climb, he was first again, followed by Delage and Konovalovas. Here the chasers had reduced their deficit to 24 seconds while the peloton was at 1.55.

 

The junction is made

With 85km to go, the two front groups merged to make it an 8-rider group with an advantage of 1.40. Moments later, Damuseau crashed in the break but he quickly rejoined the group.

 

Tolhoek beat Delage and Damuseau in the fifth KOM sprint where Bretagne decided to try to split the field in the strong wind. The group split in three and the gap came down quickly.

 

A regrouping

As Cofidis again took control of the first group, two of the fields merged and after Tolhoek had beat Damuseau and Konovalovas in the sixth KOM sprint, it all came back together. However, the gap was now only 25 seconds as they entered the final 65km of the race.

 

Sebastien Tugot (Ag2r) and Mattia Viel (Androni) abandoned while the peloton briefly slowed down. IAM and Cofidis again took control as the gap went out to 45 seconds.

 

The break is caught

Quemeneur was dropped from the front group and quickly fell back to the peloton which was still very nervous. Hence, the gap was still only 30 seconds with 50km to go where Tolhoek beat Levarlet and Delage in the final KOM sprint.

 

The gap stayed stable for a while before the peloton again split. While Lorrenzo Manzin (FDJ) abandoned, Alessandro De Marchi, Damiano Caruso (BMC), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Sebastien Minard (Ag2r), Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Sjoerd van Ginneken (Roompot), Krainer(Europcar), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne), Florian Senechal (Cofidis) and Robin Stenuit (Wanty) escaped from the first field. However, it was a short-lived move and with 41km to go, everything was back together. In the end, it all came down to the expected sprint where Bouhanni took the win.